_David prayeth earnestly against his enemies.—He blesseth God.—He
prayeth for the people._
A Psalm of David.
Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, _if_
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift
up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity,
which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief _is_ in their
hearts.
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of
their endeavours; give them after the work of their hands; render to
them their desert.
Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of
his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.
Blessed _be_ the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my
supplications.
The LORD _is_ my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and
I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song
will I praise him.
The LORD _is_ their strength, and he _is_ the saving strength of his
anointed.
Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift
them up for ever.
This is a prayer of David, which in his time he used against Saul, and
others like him; but especially against all those Cainish hypocrites
who in word pretended to desire peace, but burned with secret hatred
in their hearts. Such a viper as this was Absalom, his son, against
him; and such an one also was Joab against Amasa and Abner, 2 Kings
iii. David, therefore, fearing lest the same things should be laid to
his charge, prays, “Draw me not away with the wicked, nor with the
workers of iniquity.”
We may use the Psalm against tyrants and fanatical spirits; for in
this way are tyrants and persecutors of the word wont to pretend peace
in word, and yet secretly plan counsels of slaughter and murder all
the while. And so also fanatical spirits and all false prophets boast
with ‘big swelling words’ of the word of God, and tumultuously cry out
that they seek the glory and the worship of God, and promise nothing
but divine and heavenly things, and yet seek all the while their own
advantage and their own glory, destroying souls, and walking about in
sheep’s clothing, while they are inwardly nothing but ravening wolves.
This Psalm belongs to the second and third precept, and to the first
and second petition of the Lord’s Prayer.